Nathan Deal signs broad gun rights expansion

Ellijay – Gov. Nathan Deal signed legislation today that would vastly expand where Georgians can legally carry firearms, a proposal that has drawn heaps of praise and scorn from outside groups.

“People who follow the rules can protect themselves and their families from people who don’t follow the rules,” said Deal, adding: “The Second Amendment should never be an afterthought. It should reside at the forefronts of our minds.”

House Bill 60, which passed in the final hours of this year’s legislative session, allows Georgians to legally carry firearms in a wide range of new places, including schools, bars, churches and government buildings. A recent analysis also said it could let felons use the state’s “stand your ground” rules to claim self-defense if they feel threatened.

“There are always opportunities for people to use any piece of legislation as a political tool if they don’t like it. But there was bipartisan support for the bill. The main story that should come out of it is the final product is significantly different from earlier versions. And some of the more [pause] interesting parts were removed.”

Critics have dubbed it the “guns everywhere” bill for its broad scope, and opponents including former Rep. Gabby Giffords have tried to block its passage. Supporters have flooded Deal’s office with pleas to sign the measure, which the National Rifle Association called “the most comprehensive pro-gun reform bill in state history.”

There was never serious doubt that he would sign it, though. The powerful gun rights lobby has made it their top priority, and Deal doesn’t want to give his two GOP primary challengers any opening. Even Democratic state Sen. Jason Carter, his party’s nominee for governor, voted for the bill. Echoing Deal, Carter told MSNBC this week that he believed he helped “make the bill better than it was when it first started.”

Deal, for his part, tried to downplay the warnings from critics that the law could endanger police officers and lead to more violence. Said Deal:

“The important premise we all should remember is these are people who have their fingerprints taken, their backgrounds checked and they have been licensed to carry a weapon. It’s not just someone walking out of the clear blue with none of those background checks. They’ve been subjected to scrutiny of the state.”

The bill, which takes effect July 1, also legalizes the use of silencers for hunting, clears the way for school staffers to carry guns in school zones and lets leaders of religious congregations choose whether to allow licensed gun holders inside. And it allows permitted gun owners to carry their weapons in government buildings – including parts of courthouses – where there is no security at the entrance.

To some groups, though, even word of Deal’s impending signature wasn’t enough. Georgia Gun Owners, one of the more strident Second Amendment groups, told members on Facebook they shouldn’t feel obligated to attend the Ellijay signing ceremony with Deal and House Speaker David Ralston. It called the duo “ethically-challenged Big Government moderate Republicans.”

“Gun owners should be congratulated for your enormous pressure put on the General Assembly . . . but shouldn’t feel pressure to serve as a political prop for two lifetime politicians looking for political cover.”

Both Carter and Deal shouldn’t expect the national attention to let up. MSNBC and CNN ordered a TV crew up to Ellijay for live coverage of the event this morning — a measure of the role the gun bill is likely to play the rest of the year.

State Rep. Rick Jasperse, a GOP sponsor of the bill, welcomes the attention. He told the hundreds of supporters, many wearing sidearms, to ignore the “misinformation” about the law.

Guns in bars..... Guns in bars. Just repeat it a couple more times and see if it sounds any less insane. You can mask this stupidity behind 2nd amendment rights and protection for families but it comes down to basic common sense. Don't have guns around children and alcoholics (school zones and bars). I'm proud to be party of the generation of college students who looked at this nonsense and outright refused it. There is still no campus carry because the educated portion of the population is just hoping not to get shot before we can leave the state with our degree in hand.

Actually the response from insurers will verify who's right on this debate: If insurance companies give discounts to establishments who serve liquor and allow guns, then that means statistics show those places are more safe. On the other hand, if insurance companies raise their rates then that means evidence shows they are less safe. The insurance companies will do due diligence and act accordingly as they are experts at evaluating risk.

It will be interesting to see what the insurance implications are as a result of this new law. Who's going to want to insure an establishment that has a liquor license and permits guns? My prediction is that this will be an obstacle for business owners who want to allow firearms. I believe this came up when some school systems wanted to allow guns.

This is so great! I'm a weapon license holder and firearm owner. This bill will allow me to protect my friends and family in more places and not only that, also help protect the community and more businesses by allowing me to carry into places that I couldn't carry into before. This is great and I'm so glad that this awesome law was passed. You can rest assured that when it's needed, it's needed and I will be in the right place at the right time to help protect my community and the lives of other people. Yes, there are the 'Not So Responsible' people, but you can rest assured, that it's responsible people like myself that are there and ready to take action if the duty calls to protect our own lives and the lives of our community friends and family. Let's do it Georgia! Thank you Gov. Deal & everyone whom signed petitions to pass this law. It's our right to bear arms and it's our right to have freedom! This is the USA, America where we are free and have freedom. This isn't some foreign country where we have to hide in our homes all the time! Welcome to America!

On the Television news, I saw these fat old white men laughing as they signed a bill into law allowing guns in places they should never be allowed for public safety. What is so amusing to Nathan Deal and his cronies? Only paranoid or crazy or hostile people carry guns into churches, into schools, into public buildings . . . As a lifelong Massachusetts resident, I intend never to set foot in the state of Georgia -- where more people than ever will be killed in 2014 because of the stupidity of politicians who express such contempt for human life. Nathan Deal is 71 years old, and his actions are based on a deeply flawed belief system wherein "power" is defined as the ability to coerce others, rather than a consensus notion of power, which is a shared process, and is not based on the primitive notion of threat of death.

I ask that future articles be written in terms of how such a law has removed some of the restrictions on locations that previously written laws had prohibited us. The way this article is written tends to put into the minds of the readers that we must have 'permission' from the government to do something, and this is a BAD mindset.

Laws are written to prohibit.

We must not allow the government to become our parents, and forcing us to be their children in which we must ask for permission!

No, we live under an administration where the top law enforcer, Holder, and his boss, Obama don't enforce and uphold the laws of our country on one hand and allow governmental agencies to violate the rights of the citizens unchecked on the other, i.e. the IRS, Bureau of Land Management, etc., etc. .

The reality is this is a break down in civil society. A civil society gives the police the right to enforce law. We have moved into an era of the wild west(mentality) where it is becoming vigilantism. It started in the seventies with the"scaring of America" through racial code. Even though crime and way down it doesn't matter.

@LBGA And yet, all of those nations with stricter gun control are safer, and have far lower homicide rates. You're going to see more accidental shootings than you will responsible gun owners stopping a crime. Courtrooms already have armed, trained people ready to deal with problems - letting some civilian bring in a gun doesn't make it safer, it only opens up more opportunities for violence.

Its really funny how ignorant people can be. Its really simple, more restrictions, more shootings. I.E.City of Chicago, Aurora Movie Theater in Colorado, Sandy Hook, Columbine, Virginia Tech all were gun restricted zones. EVERY ONE OF THEM! , Pretty much any place that there is a Gun Free Zone sign, there's more chance of a shooting because there is no defenders other then local law enforcement which arrives AFTER the fact.After lives are lost and children, or parents, wives or husbands wont be coming home anymore. It is your decision to protect your self at what ever level you feel necessary, and it will be respected if you choose to not carry, but don't bash those who feel like it is our responsibility to keep our loved ones safe at the level we feel comfortable. Your completely right about crazy people carrying guns in these places, your sadly mistaken if you think people don't already simply because you don't see them. It is those crazy people that keep mine on my side because it is my job to make sure my family, my loved ones come home and I will do what ever means necessary to ensure and provide them with that safety.

People need to understand, that as Gun owners, we aren't trying to force you to own one, we do not care if you never touch one in your life. So why are you trying to force us not to. We respect that you have a dislike and we leave it be, why can people have the same respect to those of us who are trained, law abiding citizens who just want to live the American way, the way of the constitution?

When a drunk driver kills a van of 6 innocent passengers, do we blame the car? When a person misspells a word, do we blame the comp or the writing utensil? No, we blame the operator. It's the same with a firearm. A firearm is a tool. a tool like a chainsaw, or a car, or a ax, it is capable of many ugly things when used improperly, but if treated correctly and respectfully, it sits and collects dust until its needed.

@meadow4GR It's amazing to me that anti-gunners keep trotting out the "wild west, blood in the streets, more death and murder" cliche every time carry laws are expanded. Firearm carry rights have now been expanded over 300 times and not once have these dire predictions come true. Not once has any state or locality that passed or CCW ever considered repealing it.

CCW permit holders have been demonstrated to be far more law-abiding than the general population and actually commit murder at a lower rate than police do.

So you're statistically safer in a room full of CCW permit holders than you are in a room full of armed police.

@meadow4GR your opinion on people who choose to carry a weapon is deeply flawed. We aren't paranoid, or crazy, or any of those other stereotypes that you and other people like you love to group us into, we are proactive about our safety. How many times have you turned on the news and seen a politician screaming "something has to be done about this" after a national tragedy? Every time something happens they take a reactionary stance, saying something has to be done and nothing ever gets done. My question to you is why do we have to wait until after the fact to decide that something needs to be done, why can't we recognize an issue and fix it before it becomes a problem? That's exactly what this bill does, it empowers the law abiding by extending where they can defend themselves. Crime doesn't stop on Sundays and churches are not off limits to criminals, so why should they be to the law abiding?

@meadow4GR the US government uses death threats today. You are delusional believing power is not backed up by force. Real power is always backed up by force. A consensus as you describe it means the use of force is restrained until necessary.

@gnofg You have, apparently, not called the police for anything in recent history. I have had occasion to call on 2 different times and in one, i had to call back 3 1/2 hours later and tell them to cancel my call because I had cleared the house myself. On the second, it took more than 40 minutes for the police to arrive and we cleared the house together.

A phrase that is quoted is "When seconds count the police are only minutes away!" In my case more than 40. I could have been dead and cold before the police arrived at my location if I had not been armed.

As it turned out in BOTH cases, I was armed and ready, but did not have to use my weapon. I am grateful for those outcomes. Contrary to liberal beliefs, people who choose to own weapons ARE NOT, necessarily, gun crazy and wanting to shoot up everything in sight!

@Mustang100 Bundy was breaking the law and the federal government was rational enough to avoid Waco 2.0 If you actually support the ideas of that racist nut I don't even really need to prove my point as you've already done it. How come all these 'rule of law' people are standing behind a guy clearly breaking the law. Just because he 'doesn't recognize the federal government' doesn't mean hes not bound by the same laws as the rest of us. Just because you doesn't like policy doesn't mean you get to buy a gun and do what you like

@Mustang100 The Feds "backed off" to avoid a violent confrontation that would have assuredly ended with innocent people being hurt or killed (including law enforcement who are doing the job we pay them to do). For that I applaud the Feds. The racist thief whom you seem to admire for directly violating federal law, a law which other ranchers obey, is a criminal, and you haven't seen the end of this little drama yet.

@gregg56 90% of the entire country wanted mandatory background checks but the NRA managed to get that shut down. If you think that the government is reporting to the people instead of the corporations you must be living under a rock. HB60 got passed because the NRA opened its checkbook and liberals in Georgia don't have the money to compete with that.

@badA94TA ... illiterates are deeply flawed, BadA. But, you'll find out after you lose all tourism and industry. I can't imagine why anyone would want to visit such a backward, barbaric place much less set up operations in such a horrible place as Georgia.

@Michael R@meadow4GR ... paranoid illiterates should never try to think, Michael. You and jcinnga should consider that before you make anymore attempts at rational thought. Meadow4GR just happens to be voicing the opinion of most other Americans and the rest of the world who currently see southern Republicans as little more than pig excrement.

@KatherineAlexander yes people like you, eroding our constitutional rights, are doing your best to portray us as criminals. These people, the ones like you spreading fear and hatred for no reason other than the fact that their facts don't reflect their message, are better labeled as extremists, not rational.

@KatherineAlexander yes just like Florida lost all their tourism and industry. Despite your illiterate and illegitimate fear mongering, Disney remains packed every month of the year. Keep your gun control and your ridiculously high crime rates, we prefer common sense methods that actually work

RonBeau has it right though. JESUS doesn't say anything about it. Most of the explicit stuff is from the old testament. But that doesn't even get to the point of the matter that it was all written down between 1600-2200 years ago by hundreds of different authors in the middle east and then translated hundreds of times again. The constitution of the United States however should be number one and it as well as the founding fathers expressly state how separate religion and state should be. I don't believe in your nonsense, I am not bound by your arbitrary commandments and I don't want you codifying your superstitious century old beliefs into my laws. The constitution is beautiful because it protects me from religious nuts like you and lets us all live in the same country

You obviously have no knowledge of the bible as this statement undeniably proves. This is only a VERY SMALL amount of scripture for you... There's a lot more where these came from.

Leviticus 18:22

22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13

13 If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them

Romans 1:26-27

26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,[a] nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

You can agree that murder is wrong and deserves the severest of punishments, yes? Then here ya go:

Luke 1:44

44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

Isaiah 49:1

49 “Listen, O coastlands, to Me,And take heed, you peoples from afar!The Lord has called Me from the womb;From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name

If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life.

@KatherineAlexander Well, I might not know your God. I'm guessing you're a liberal, and you're right, I don't know your God. Mine doesn't condone same sex marriages nor does he condone the murder of unborn children. I guess you're partially correct with your assertion. Thanks again for proving once again that liberals are not too bright, but they're certainly entertaining! As far as the "illiterate white trash" comment is concerned, yep, that's me. The good news is that I'm not like you.

[…] and their families from people who don’t follow the rules,” Deal said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The Second Amendment should never be an afterthought. It should reside at the forefronts of our […]

[…] Nathan Deal signs broad gun rights expansion | Political Insider blog TANSTAAFL No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government – Thomas Jefferson Reply With Quote […]

[…] House Bill 60, which passed in the final hours of this year’s legislative session, allows Georgians to legally carry firearms in a wide range of new places, including schools, bars, churches and government buildings. A recent analysis also said it could let felons use the state’s “stand your ground” rules to claim self-defense if they feel threatened. click here for full story at ajc.com […]

[…] and their families from people who don’t follow the rules,” Deal said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The Second Amendment should never be an afterthought. It should reside at the forefronts of our […]

[…] Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Nathan Deal signs broad gun rights expansion — “Critics have dubbed it the ‘guns everywhere’ bill for its broad scope, and opponents including former Rep. Gabby Giffords have tried to block its passage. Supporters have flooded Deal’s office with pleas to sign the measure, which the National Rifle Association called ‘the most comprehensive pro-gun reform bill in state history.’” […]

[…] yet another article about stupid shit. This week has been dumb as hell. People in the state of Georgia can bring their guns EVERYWHERE. Where is everywhere? Only places like churches, schools, airport common areas, bars, courtrooms, […]

[…] Jason Carter became one of the hardest folks to track down last week as Gov. Nathan Deal signed a broad expansion of gun rights into law. He turned to a familiar audience Wednesday to explain his vote for the measure, which […]